EU Scrutinizes Spain-Morocco Electricity Deal Over Environmental Concerns

If it is financially interesting on paper, it could prove to be very harmful to the environment. Yesterday, the Minister of Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, described this agreement as risky and acknowledged that an investigation is currently underway to determine its environmental impact. Moreover, Morocco could, it is said, generate distortions on the market by producing CO2 without paying for it, which has prompted the European Commission and the Spanish Competition Commission to take an interest in the matter.

In an intervention in the Spanish Senate, the minister stated that the closure of the mines and power plants had already been decided more than 8 months ago, responding to a leader of the Popular Party (right-wing opposition) who accused the socialist government of having closed power plants that "could survive at least until 2050".

Moreover, according to the right-wing senator, for the first time in December last year, just after the closure of the power plants in Spain, the energy balance was favorable to Morocco which, a few weeks earlier, had just opened a new thermal power plant. This is, according to him, an "express" and ideological transition that is leading the Spaniards "to the abyss".